Restoration on Mount Vernon mansion

Keeping a 250-year-old mansion in pristine shape isn’t easy.
Now Mount Vernon is taking things down to scratch.

George Washington was a sharp guy in more than beating the
British. He wanted the mansion to have a stone look like those in England despite
being made of wood. So, sand was mixed with paint and from a distance indeed
looks like stone. That is, until you knock on it.

The most visited home in America with more than 1.1 million
people annually, Mount Vernon opted to return the mansion to its original look
several years ago from white to tan. Now they’re stripping off the old paint down
to the boards, which have shown surprisingly little deterioration. They are removing
28 layers of paint.

Yes, it stinks to have all the scaffolding in front to ruin
pictures, but ultimately, you’ll see the home in its original glory once more.